 Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book with a one-word title that you had to look up in the dictionary.
Drapetomania, by John R. Gordon. The title is a word coined during the slavery era, to explain why some enslaved people ran away: escape was blamed on "madness." Naturally the supposed cure was "firm discipline." This book gets trigger warnings for pretty much any form of physical or sexual cruelty. And yet, at its heart, it's a love story, two men seizing every scrap of joy they can find in a life of struggle. Cyrus is a field hand, and Abednego ("Bed") is a butler. They find love and comfort in the moments they can steal together. Then disaster strikes, the crop is lost, and the plantation owner sells Abednego to pay off debts. Cyrus first plans to flee North, then realizes he has to find Abednego first. Far down the river, Abednego is picking cotton for gleefully sadistic enslavers, but he holds fast to the faith that Cyrus will find him. The author has a good feel for the era. Cyrus has lived his whole life confined to one estate, and has never been in the "big house" - the wider world is a mystery to him. The rivalry and suspicion between the field hands and house servants is a constant - and used by the enslavers as a way to divide and conquer. The characters have some narrow escapes, and get help from people with strong reasons to turn them in instead. The victories feel earned, even when they're improbable. It's a story of hope as the North Star, guiding them toward love and freedom.
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